Eleven people are keen to form a Katikati Envirotown committee following Sunday's public meeting attended by more than 50 people.
The meeting, called by Katikati Community Board chairwoman Jenny Hobbs, was to discuss ideas and do a workshop around Katikati becoming an Envirotown.
She said it was a very successful workshop and a great start for a possible Envirotown.
"Monday morning's earthquake reminds us how important it is to look to being more resilient and self sufficient sooner, rather than later."
The earthquake struck two hours after speaker Sue Jarvis, one of the founders of the Lincoln Envirotown Trust, got home.
Sue had voluntarily flown from the South Island to Katikati to speak about how Lincoln became an Envirotown and gave an update on their successes to date.
"We started with 45 people at a meeting on a Sunday, something like what you have here today."
She explained how their trust gathered community support and produced a plan.
"We divided actions into little things that the community could carry out in an action plan."
The Lincoln Envirotown Trust runs sustainable living courses, composting workshops, Zero waste street challenges, community water quality testing of streams and encourage local land developers to use sustainability principles and Responsible Business Awards.
"We give reuseable bags to everyone in the supermarket," Sue said.
They had introduced timebanking in Selwyn, which is a positive way of trading skills in the community through workshops, working bees, events and trades.
Issues concerning Katikati folk were improving Council/community collaboration to bring about change and work towards a more cohesive community; water (quality, allocation, ownership); climate change and advocating at a high level for government action; waste and recycling (ban plastic bags in Katikati, worm farming/composting locally); healthy food education and community garden for the whole community and loss of biodiversity and native planting.
Sue said it was great to see the local iwi there - and they were very supportive and said it was just what they needed, a way of communication between them and their environmental issues, the community and the council.
Envirotown would be a community-led project, focussed on creating positive change and collaboration, with local people taking action and getting things done, Jenny said.
"There is still a lot of work to do to survey the whole community to find out what they want, what they are currently doing and what they would like to be involved in changing, going forward," she said.
The expenses for the day were met by generous donations from Katikati College, Lions Club of Katikati, donations on the day and Katikati Rotary Club.